[trx_quote cite="#" title="Mandy Green"]I found a way to book all of our teams hotels for the year in 1 hour and it doesn't cost me a thing.[/trx_quote]
It Takes me 1 hour to Book our Team's Hotels for the Year
I was on the phone with a director of operations the other day and she was mentioning how long it had taken her to book her teams hotels for this spring season.
She said that the process of calling hotels, getting a hold of the right person, giving them all of the information, waiting for the quote, comparing prices, negotiating, deciding on which one to go with, getting the contracts, signing and returning, and getting them the rooming lists easily had taken her 20+ hours.
She asked me how long it takes us to book and reserve all of our hotels.
I estimated about 1 hour total.
I got silence.
After making sure she was still on the phone with me, I told her that I used to go through the same process but I found a better way and have never looked back. Even better, it doesn't cost me anything.
A coaching friend recommended Mark Rosoff to me and as long as I coach, he will forever be my hotel guy.
Once I had my guy, then I had to create my standard operating procedure. See below. We have this information saved in s folder on our shared drive so all of our coaches have access to it.
Booking Our Fall Hotels
The Hotel Guy-Mark L. Rosoff
Telephone: 919.417.3494
Web Site: http://thehotelguy.org/
Email: [email protected]
Email him our fall game schedule so he can see where we are playing.
He will need to know:
1. The date and estimated time we will be arriving
2. The date we will be leaving
3. How many rooms we will need
- 1 room for head coach-1 king
- 1 room for male assistant coach-2 queen beds
- 1 room for female trainer-2 queen bed
- 1 room for bus driver-king
- 2 players per room-queen beds
4. How much we can spend on each room-$90-130.
5. We always want to try to reserve a conference room to have meetings
6. We always want a deluxe hot continental breakfast bar / free wifi & bus parking
Once he has all of this information, he will call a lot of the hotels in the towns we will be playing in. He puts everything together and gives me a report that looks something like this with 4-5 different options. He usually highlights the best option for us.
IUPUI / Indianapolis IN / Arrive: 9/29/16 for 2 nights
** Very Large United Pentecostal International Convention in town ** * Comfort Suites S. West Street City Center: $109.00 per suite (bed, bed, sofa bed) / includes deluxe hot continental breakfast bar / free wifi / $40.00 bus parking fee / All Suites hotel no meeting room is available but you are welcome to use the hotel's breakfast room area for any team meetings / indoor pool / hot tub / on-site fitness room / with cardio, universal weight machine and free weights / $99.00 bus driver rate Website: http://www.comfortsuites.com/hotel-indianapolis-indiana-IN233#listpos1
Once I pick the one I want, I let him know. He then contacts the hotel and has them send us the contract. We look it over, sign it, and return it. It's pretty easy and virtually takes me no time at all.
Again, working with Mark costs us nothing. He get paid a commission from the hotel.
Since our travel list party stays relatively the same, we create a rooming list at the beginning of the year, and use that as our template. We use that same rooming list template and just change the names around so our players have to stay with new people each time. Using this template over and over also reduces the amount of time it takes us to send the rooming lists in to each hotel.
This whole thing got set up just because I recognized that setting up our hotels was taking too long to do. I found a way to delegate this task to somebody who is way more experienced and has the time to do it which frees up time for me to focus more on my coaching responsibilities.
If you are still booking hotels on your own, please stop. Work with Mark.
Email me at [email protected] to let me know how it goes for you. I love hearing all of your success stories of how this is working for you!!!!!
Good luck. Have a productive week.
Mandy Green
P.S. If you found this helpful, please share it with your coaching friends. I want to help eliminate as much coaching office chaos for as many coaches I can this year. If I can save you 1-2 hours a day and get you so you don’t have to bring as much work home with you (besides recruiting calls), you will have more time and energy to spend with your families, friends, and on your hobbies. Happier and more productive coaches have happier and more productive teams!
